FAMILY INSECTIVORA— INSECTIVOROUS BATS. 



15 



The whole of the membrane is diaphanous, and of a bright brown co- 

 lour. 



The entire length of this Bat, including the tail, (half an inch,) is 

 about six and a half inches, and the extreme breadth two feet and a 

 half, sometimes a trifle more. These dimensions do not depend always 

 on age, but also on locality ; those of Amboyna being larger than those 

 of Banda, and those of Timor less than these last. This great animal 

 retires and conceals itself during the day in caverns and among the clefts 

 of the rocks; from which inaccessible hiding-places it usually issues only 

 at the twilight. It flies with rapidity, is not very social with the allied 

 genera, bites very cruelly, and occasions an abominable odour, although 



destitute of the unctuous apparatus possessed by some of the previously 

 described species. 



It inhabits Banda, Samao, Timor, and Amboyna, in large numbers ; 

 but has not hitherto been seen in Java. 



IMAGINARY SPECIES. 



1. Cephalotes Molluccensis of MM. Quoy and Gaimard (Voy. de 

 1'Astrolabe, P. Zool. vol. I. p. 86) is distinguished only by trifling indivi- 

 dual peculiarities. 



Note Cephalotes Pallasii is now transferred to the Genus Harpyia. 



FAMILY II. INSECTIVORA.— INSECTIVOROUS BATS. 

 Syn. Les Vbaies Chauve— Souris — Cuv. Reg. Anim. I. 114. 



CHARACTERS OF THE FAMILY. 



T he Molar Teeth studded with conical points. 



The Index with one or two phalanges only, always without a nail. 



Inhabit the tropical or temperate parts of the whole globe. 



Having fully discussed the characters of the Frugivorous Bats, 

 we now arrive at the Proper Bats, which are all Insectivorous. Their 

 molar teeth, three in number on either side of each jaw, and studded 

 with conical points, are preceded by a variable number of false mo- 

 lars. The index finger is always deprived of the nail, and with the 

 exception of one sub-genus, the membrane extends between the 

 thighs. 



We have already had occasion (p. 3) to notice the recent and interest- 

 ing discovery of M. Isidore Geoffioy in the osteology of the Bats, namely, 

 that they have a bone connected with the elbow-joint in all respects an- 

 swering to the knee-pan. This interesting structure is most marked in 

 the Frugivorous Bats, but continues sufficiently striking in most of the 

 Insectivorous; the genus Vespertilio supplying the only partial exception, 

 being in them entirely hid in the tendon of the triceps muscle. M. Tem- 

 minck enumerates the following as the functions to which this peculiar 

 apparatus is subservient. Most of the Bats, he remarks, possess the 

 power of using their wings, or membranes, in the capacity of hands, the 

 wing being moveable in all directions, and susceptible of prehension. 

 The structure of the wing accordingly corresponds to these functions, as 

 they supply hands to seize, feet to walk, and wings to fly, the Elbow-pan, 

 as we may term it, being used in their crawling gait, and in affording sup- 

 port on the ground, in the same way as the knee-pan in the other 

 classes of the Mammalia. M. Brehm has made the same remark, and 

 adds that in this respect the Bats differ from Birds, which never employ 

 their winss in seizing or retaining an object, or in supporting their body, 

 except when flying. 



In the Insectivorous Chiroptera the thumb is always very short, being 

 composed of a single articulation, and of a claw with its phalanx ; the 

 fore-finger always wants the nail and the unguinal phalanx. The interfe- 

 moral membrane, with one exception, is very ample, most frequently en- 

 veloping the whole of the tail by means of strong tendons and of a ten- 

 dinous prolongation from the heel. This apparatus, directed towards 

 the abdomen, is employed in retaining the young as in a sac during flight. 



From M. Temminck we learn that a fact hitherto inexplicable, has 

 received an explanation from recent observations made upon these 

 winged Mammiferse. We allude to a curious circumstance noticed in 

 the capture of these animals. In the haunts where they have been found 

 in numbers, at one time, only males have invariably been obtained, at 

 another only females, and, finally, at others a heap of young only, without 

 a single adult of either sex. The habits of the animals, as lately ob- 

 served, afford an explication of these isolated unions. For it would ap- 

 pear that the two sexes never resoit to the same retreat ; but immedi- 

 ately when their amours are ended, the females retire, always in com- 

 pany, and often in great flocks, into narrow chinks far from the company 

 of the males, who in their turn associate in bands ; the sexes remain thus 

 separated till the young are in a state to fly about and take care o f them- 

 selves; after which they quit the society of their mothers, and choose a 

 new retreat, where individuals of the same age assemble, and which sepa- 



rate into their several sexes about the time of their love season. M. 

 Brehm has verified a part of these observations upon several of the Eu- 

 ropean species of Vespertilio ; and testimonies to the same effect have 

 been communicated by the Dutch Naturalists in the East Indies. Facts 

 speak quite as distinctly to the point, for M. Temminck assures us that 

 parcels of these Bats, coming from all parts of the world, when obtained 

 in their native haunts are invariably composed of males, or females, or 

 their young exclusively. Up to the present time, he adds, we have ob- 

 tained females only of some species belonging to the Great Asiatic Archi- 

 pelago, and probably from the resorts of the males not having as yet been 

 discovered by Naturalists. 



Two of the reflections of the eminent conservator of the Leyden Mu- 

 seum, after his review of the whole order, are so important that we must 

 not omit them. 1st, He states that his researches lead him to conclude 

 that in some species the function of reproduction goes on chiefly, if not 

 solely, not when the animals appear to have attained their full maturity, 

 but apparently at an earlier period. The sutures of the cranium in the 

 class thus signalized indicate that they have not reached their full growth, 

 and their length of body and span across the wings are strikingly smaller 

 than in their fellows, whose strong occipital and coronal crests, and every 

 other sign, indicate that they have attained the maximum of their de- 

 velopments. Some species of the genera Molossus, Pachysoma and 

 Pteropus, have supplied the matter for this remark, which M. Temminck 

 considers, in the present state of our knowledge, very inexplicable. 2d, 

 His concluding observation respects the markings of the Chiroptera. In 

 some of the species, and moie especially of the Insectivorous family, he 

 has observed that there is a perfect resemblance in the colouting of the 

 fur of the two sexes ; and when there is a difference, it is always a reddish 

 colour more or less pure, which distinguishes the livery of the female 

 whilst the male is marked with brown or grey. When, however, the 

 males, and sometimes those of the other sex also, are provided with unc- 

 tuous bunches at the sides of the neck, and generally with all the frugi- 

 verous family, it is the male which is adorned with red, and when there 

 is a difference in colouring, the female wears the dull and more obscure 

 livery. His study of the colours of the Chiroptera also lead to the con- 

 jecture that, as in Birds, they are probably subject to a double moult, and 

 thus have one dress for summer and another for winter. 



The Insectivorous Bats may be subdivided into two principal 

 tribes. The first, has the middle finger of the membrane, with three 

 ossified phalanges, but the other fingers, as well as the index, have 

 only two. The second tribe has only one ossified phalanx for the 

 index, and the other fingers have two [or three.] 



M. Spix subdivides the Insectivorous Bats into Istiophori, or Leaf- 

 nosed Bats, and into Anistiophori, which have the nose simple, and wholfy 

 destitute of that singular nasal appendage. By combining his arrangement, 

 with the preceding, we form four tribes corresponding nearly with those 

 indicated by M. Lesson, and in our own country by Mr Gray, under the 

 names of Noctilionina, Phyllostomina, Rhinolophina, and Vespek- 



TILIONINA. 



